Silo (2023- )

What about Silo on Apple TV? I’d not heard of the novels, but once we re-subscribed to Apple TV, this was the 10th item on our list of things to watch. Yes, I enjoyed Foundation, and maybe I would have written about that had I not been releasing The Unicorn from space while we completed the first two seasons. But I didn’t, and, to be fair, as brilliant as it was, if I had to write about one thing this year, I think it would be Silo.

The actors:

Two of my favourites, Tim Robbins and Iain Glen were, as you’d expect, brilliant. Though I wasn’t sure about the latter’s US accent. The Star, Rebecca Ferguson, shines too, depicting someone thrust unexpectedly into an adventure that they probably didn’t expect but were probably ready to go the distance – no matter the cost.

My favourite characters are Paul Billings, played by Chinaza Uche and Common (the wrapper) who plays Robert Sims, from ‘Judicial’, with a low voice that reminded me of Vin Deisel. I also enjoyed Rick Gomez’s character, Patrick Kennedy, who I would have liked to have seen more of. Finally, Dame Harriet Walker… Is she going to sit on the list that contains Dame Judi Dench, and Dame Maggie Smith as a British treasure? What do you think?

The story:

Without giving up any spoilers, the story starts with two other characters who set the scene, and immediately start you guessing how it all ends. Yes, you do have to suspend a certain amount of disbelief, but this is fiction. I mentioned Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, and that is, without a doubt, brilliant. Very twisty-turny and complex. And I will get around to reviewing it. However, I liked Silo because, even though I first dismissed it as something like the 2008 Film, City of Embers, featuring Bill Murray (sorry, there were many other actors in this, but you can’t forget Bill, can you?) It struck that middle ground that hit the spot for me. Not too long, too complex, and with a twist or two to make it not as predictable as you might think. From the get-go, it had us guessing what the finale would reveal. All I’ll say is that we were not disappointed, and at the same time… let’s just say there are 3 novels.

Last Train to London…

That’s what’s playing on my Spotify. And this is probably the last post of 2023. Some of the eagle-eyed amongst you may have spotted that this is also the first and only post of 2023. I (may) get back to that later, but there was a reason it was playing.

I had just listened to the previous track on ELO’s Discovery album – The Diary of Horace Wimp. Why? Well, Horace is one of the villains in my latest story and one of my lovely beta readers hadn’t heard of the name before. She also struggled with its pronunciation. Of course, I wanted to show that Horace is an actual name and not something I had just dreamt up. And, after a few days of head-scratching, I remembered this song.

Want to know more about Horace? Well, I’ll say more in the new year. Until then, have a very merry Christmas and happy new year.